guilty as charged
by switchboxroxrox
Summary: Axel finds himself involved in a murder investigation... The victim was his lover... The detective is a cutie... And the murderer? Axel. AkuRoku. Slight AkuDemy. Character Death.
1. the murder

_**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the characters. Though I can make the characters do whatever I want, as the author. These guidlines remain for the remainder of the story. _

_A fanfic I randomly thought of while watching court TV. Yay. Enjoy._

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**g u i l t y as charged**

_7:30 PM, Wednesday January 29__th_

The young musician drove his old turquoise Volkswagen beetle along a fairly sleepy road, the vehicle shaking dangerously as it pulled into a small driveway.

"Piece of shit," the blonde spat as he climbed out, door creaking as he pried it open. He kicked the door closed with his foot, wincing a little at the pain that followed. He shrugged it off, grabbing his sitar out of the trunk before fumbling with his keys as he approached the small house. He paused at the door, still struggling to find the correct key. When he finally found himself holding the correct key, he shoved said key into the keyhole, twisting the shaky handle as he did so, opening the door with a squeak.

Fear sparked through him when he noticed the other being sitting on the couch. Red hair. A wave of relief washed over him as he flicked on the light, sighing.

"Damn, Axel, you scared the shit out of me. What are you doing sitting in the dark? Aren't you usually still at work?" the blonde mused, scratching the back of his mulleted hair as he gently closed the door behind him.

"I came home early… Just for you, Dem," the other replied, face staying completely emotionless.

"For me? And the lights off?" Demyx began, sauntering over. "Was that a hint?" A smirk spread across the sitarist's face.

"Mmmm… Something like that," Axel replied, an evil grin finally spreading across his dead, emotionless face as he stood. A gun was revealed from behind his anorexic form.

"W-what are you doing with that?" Demyx started, backing away slowly, fear once again sparking up in his disposition.

"Something I've been planning to do for a long while…"

A demon smile.

A silenced shot.

A splatter of blood dripped down the red-head's face, tracing over the dead tear drops tattooed to his slender face. The crimson made a startling contrast against the pale white of the murderer's face.

Another shot, for safety.

There was little noise, little emotion in the whole process.

The killer slipped his gun back into his jacket, fleeing from the sight of the once living corpse. He exited through the back door. He wiped the blood from his face. He walked swiftly to his car parked at a park several blocks away. He drove. He stopped by a bar. He gambled away his last hundred bucks. He went to the pier. He silently dropped the gun into the ocean.

Demyx would like that. Demyx loved the ocean.

He went back to the car. He drove silently up that sleepy street, and pulled into the driveway, right next to the turquoise beetle.

He breathed deeply, preparing himself. A certain dance returned to his previously lifeless emerald eyes.

_It was 10:00 PM._

He swiftly stepped out of his Jaguar, flipping through his keys as he approached the door. As he pushed the key in and turned, he was surprised to see the door unlocked. Demyx usually locks the door.

The guy was kind of paranoid.

He slowly opened the door.

"Demyx?" He called, slowly stepping in. "Oh my fuck—"

He ran to the side of the bleeding male, the color of his usually bright and perky face drained away. He kneeled down, placing his hand gently against the side of the other's face. "Demyx? _Demyx?!_ Oh shit, fuck, fuck!"

He was yelling. It could probably heard around that sleepy street.

He ran to the phone, shakily dialing 911.

"Hello?! Yes yes, oh shit, I need an ambulance! And the fucking cops! Send them, send a whole fucking team!"

"Calm down sir. What's your emergency?"

"My lover's on the ground… He's been shot! Shit, shit, shit, he looks terrible, oh god—"

"Sir, did you see the killer?"

"No, I walked in and I fucking see him on the ground! There's a huge puddle of blood, he's really pale, I don't know how long ago it happened…"

_"Help is on the way."_

Axel sighed. "Oh thank you," he whispered, voice shaking as he slowly placed the phone back on the wall. A wicked smile spread across the face, quickly disappearing as he returned to his character.  
He slowly walked back over to the corpse laying on the ground, getting on his knees. "Oh, Demyx, look at where we've ended up... Oh god, Dem," he sobbed, intertwining his fingers into those of the dead man.  
"Demy, Demy, Demy..." he was whispering in the dead ear, hunching over the body, holding it close to his chest. He cupped the pale, blood-splattered face in his blood-covered hands, gently brushing some clumpy strands of hair out of the anguished face.

Crocodile tears.  
Just in case anyone was watching.


	2. the investigation

_10:15 PM, Wednesday January 29__th_

The paramedics arrived first. They saw the corpse lying in an ocean of blood, and the lead approached it, checking hopelessly for a pulse, slowly shaking his head at the empty feeling.

"I'm sorry, but he's—"

"Isn't there anything you can do? Can't you… Try to bring him back or something?" Axel blurted, pleading look in his deep green eyes.

"Sorry, sir, but just by the looks of it your friend has… Passed away a while ago," A cold voice came from behind them.

Axel cried, flinging himself over the dead body.

"I'm going to have to ask you to refrain from touching the body anymore… In addition to the crime scene. Police orders. Please step outside for a second while we search for evidence," came the voice again, calm and emotionless.

Axel turned to face the owner of the voice. A short, blonde young man stood there, crossing his arms. He wore a beige trench coat. He looked no older than twenty-two. He rose a brow at Axel. "Excuse me sir? Something wrong?"

Blue eyes.

"N-nothing, officer, I'll be going. As long as it will help find Dem's killer," Axel sniffed as he slowly stood up, clothes covered in blood. He wiped away some stray tears, spreading blood all over his face. The short officer watched him as he stepped outside, to be greeted by other investigators, pestering him with questions.

"Can I just not talk about this now? Please?" Axel sighed, placing his face in his hands.

"No, I'll be taking over this interview now," that same cold voice came again.

"Lieutenant Strife, should we help inside?" one of the outside officers asked.

"That would help. I'll take care of this guy," the lieutenant sighed, plopping down next to where Axel sat, hunched over on a wall outside the small house.

"How old are you, anyway?" Axel questioned, leaning in to look at the officer.

"I believe I'm supposed to be asking the questions here…"

"I'd feel more open to answering if you told me more about yourself."

The other rolled his eyes. He dug through his pocket, then flipped out a wallet, showing off a police badge and driver's license.

"Lieutenant Roxas Strife. Age 20, 5'6", 123 pounds. Happy?" he sighed, telling off his stats.

"Very. That was more than I was expecting… I'm not complaining though."

"You seem relatively light and happy… Considering your… Lover, was it? just got shot," Roxas stated flatly, jotting down some notes.

"Oh god, did you have to remind me?" Axel moaned, face dropping into his hands as he began to sob. "Do you think it's easy for me? To talk about this so soon after seeing him… Sprawled across the floor in a puddle of blood?"

"Sorry," the blonde said nonchalantly, flipping through his notepad. "Axel, is it?"

"Axel Kasai. Age 27, 6'3", 119 pounds…" Axel droned, dazing out a bit.

"Right… Thanks," Roxas answered, giving him a strange look as he jotted down some notes.

"You're really young to be a lieutenant. What are you, some sort of a genius?" Axel mused, looking at the blonde.

"I went through school fast," Roxas recited, not looking up. "Now what I need to ask you—"

"Please… Can we do this tomorrow? We can go have coffee or something… Please?" Axel begged, eyes filling with liquid, several tears sliding down his face as he looked the blonde straight in the eyes. "It's just so much for me to handle."

Roxas scribbled something down before answering, "Alright, you seem to unstable now anyway."

_Mood swings. Sad happy sad. Hitting on me. Suspect?: Yes. _

"Thank you lieutenant," Axel replied, wiping away some tears. Roxas ripped a page out of his notepad.

"Meet me there at 12:00 PM tomorrow," Roxas stated dully as he handed over the paper with a name and address of a coffee shop sprawled across it messily.

"Thanks again, I really do need to rest," Axel sighed, taking the paper gingerly.

"Yeah, you really do…"


	3. the coffee shop interview

_Hey guys. My first real update on a story since I became active on Because all other multiple chapter stories had their multiple chapters added at the same time... And this is my first upload of 2008! Alright! Yup yup. Anyway, I'd like to thank the people who reviewed the first 2 chapters of_ guilty as charged_: **Kurotorachan, Riku-stalker, **and** Sarie Bear**. Thank you three! And thanks to everyone who faved this story. Alright, here we are with the third chapter._

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_11:50 AM, Thursday January 30__th_

Roxas sat in the coffee shop, elbows on the tall table he was seated at, head resting on his palms. He blew the loose strands of hair from his eyes, sighing. He was ten minutes early, but he still hated waiting.

Axel was just leaving the hotel he was staying at. It was a very short distance from the coffee shop. He was asked to stay at a hotel for the night, not before surrendering his bloodied clothes to the investigation however. And so he had packed a very limited wardrobe with him before getting booted off to a nearby hotel. Maybe he should have shot Demyx somewhere away from home.

As he hopped outside of the hotel, he pulled the crumpled piece of paper from the pocket of his skin-tight jeans, just to be sure of the location of his date.

Date, he called it.

As he approached the café, he noticed the young blonde man sitting at one of the tables, extremely bored. He shook his head, getting into the mournful lover character before stepping into the café slowly, looking around as if he hadn't already spotted the blonde.

"Mr. Kasai, over here," Roxas called, relieved the man had finally showed up.

"Oh, lieutenant, hope I didn't make you wait too long," Axel said as he scurried over, taking a seat across from Roxas.

"It's fine, I was just early… A caramel frappachino will be fine, please," Roxas mentioned to the waiter that was now standing next to their table.

Axel looked over at the waiter as well. "Umm… How about just a cup of coffee for me," Axel said softly. The waiter nodded at the two of them and went on his way.

"So, care to tell me more today?" Roxas mumbled, pulling out his notepad as he leaned back in his chair.

"Oh… Right… Well, what's there to say?" Axel sighed, resting his head in his hands.

"Let's start with this… What was your relationship to our victim, Demyx McGinnis?" Roxas questioned, slipping a pen out of his coat pocket.

"Lover. Roommate. Best Friend. We'd been going out since a little after college… So, how many years has it been? 5 or so?" Axel looked up, trying to recall these small facts. "Started living together 2 years ago. We share the rent on that house where Demyx was… Well, you know…" Axel trailed off near the end, lowering his head.

"Uh-huh… I see. Anyone you know that might have wanted to… Harm Demyx in anyway?" Roxas asked further, placing his pen against his lip.

"Mmmm… Not really. Everyone loved Dem. In fact, there were several people who would have loved to snatch Demyx away from me. Who knows… Maybe they thought they were shooting at _me _when they shot Demy…" Axel looked up into Roxas' blue orbs once again, green eyes moist with sorrow.

"Okay… And these people you're talking about…?" Roxas looked straight back into Axel's eyes.

"Xigbar Jackson and Zexion Camelot… They were crazy over Dem. They were always going to his performances and giving him flowers and shit, trying to win him over. They hated me because Demyx would always come running to _my _arms, rather than theirs. Pissed them off," Axel stated, pulling a box out of his pocket. He shook it to reveal a single cigarette, which he seized and brought to his lips. "Got a light, kid?"

Roxas rolled his eyes, digging through his coat pocket, soon producing a lighter. Axel leaned in as Roxas lit his cigarette for him. "Who the hell you calling kid?" Roxas muttered as Axel pulled back to look at him, leaning back in his own chair.

"You, Kiddo. You're what, 20? Can't even get into a bar by yourself… To drink at least,' Axel chuckled to himself, flicking the younger's forehead.

"Shut up… You're only… Seven years older," Roxas mumbled, crossing his arms across his chest, face turning a light pink color.

"Seven's a lot, kid," Axel grinned.

"Just stop calling me kid, okay?" Roxas hissed, sitting up straighter. At that time, the waiter came back, placing their coffee's gently on the table. They both muttered their 'thank you's, Axel blowing softly on his piping hot coffee, Roxas twiddling with the straw of his cold beverage.

Without even taking a sip of his drink, Roxas grabbed his notes again, eyes traveling back up to look at Axel. "So… Tell me more about last night… where were you between the hours of…" he glanced down at his notes, "7 to 10 PM?"

"Seven? Geez… um… Okay, I got off work early at around 6:30, I believe. Yeah, after that, I drove around some… I didn't really want to go home just yet. Demyx didn't usually get home until around 7:30 ish, so there would have been nothing to do at home. So I went to my regular bar, did some gambling, the usual," Axel muttered, scratching his head, trying to recall the details. He took a swig of his steaming coffee.

"Then I decided I'd go buy Demyx a present or something. I dunno, it was a random gesture, but I decided to get him something from one of those beach gift shops… Dem likes a lot of nautical stuff. But I ended up not getting him anything… Everything just seemed to cheesy. So then I drove home, arriving at home to see… Well, you know…" Axel trailed off, looking down into his lap where he was twiddling his thumbs, coffee left abandoned on the table.

Perfect. Just as he had practiced all last night.

Roxas slowly nodded, looking down at the notes he jotted down while Axel was rambling off his alibi.

"Where do you work, Axel?" Roxas questioned calmly, pen ready to write whatever Axel was about to voice.

"Xemnas Fireworks Inc… I work at a desk, but I really want to work with the fire," Axel grinned, eyes sparkling.

"Uh-huh… Why'd you get off early yesterday?" asked Roxas.

"Xem said I could. I was feeling a bit off, so he told me to go home and get some rest—"

"But you didn't. You stayed out for an additional three and a half hours before returning home," Roxas interrupted quickly.

"Hey, whoa, I just felt a lot better once I was out of that cramped office, so I decided to chill on the town… There's nothing to do at home, after all," Axel said, pointing at his head.

"Okay, and the bar you went to?"

"Luxord's, of course. Best damn bar in the whole city," Axel laughed, bringing his temporarily ignored cigarette up to his slender lips.

"Uh-huh… One last question," Roxas mumbled as he wrote down the name of the bar. One thing was troubling him about Axel's alibi.

"Why didn't you buy Demyx anything?"

"Huh? Everything just seemed really stupid… Nothing Dem would like," Axel answered calmly, exhaling a wave of smoke.

"So you drove all the way out to the coast… But didn't even bother buying Demyx anything at all? Not even something small, just because you went all the way there?" Roxas raised a brow, eyes aiming up toward Axel, who was now leaning back in his chair, the front two legs suspended in the air.

"What? I told you, I thought of buying him something all spur-of-the-moment. When I got there and saw what was available, I realized just how stupid that idea was. Nothing more," Axel breathed, jerking at the end of his speech, all four chair legs coming to rest on the ground once again.

"Really…" Roxas droned, staring at Axel for a bit. "Alright. I guess I'm done here. Thanks for your time, Mr. Kasai." Roxas stood from his chair abruptly, causing the redhead to jump slightly. He placed a few bills next to his untouched coffee. "I may be contacting you soon to talk to you again."

"You think I can see you soon… Just to hang out… No police business involved?" Axel quickly asked, standing from his own chair, grabbing Roxas' hand gently.

"Excuse me?" Roxas cocked a brow, looking at the older man.

"I don't know, after all this… with Demyx and everything… I really need a friend to talk to," Axel murmured, looked down at his feet. Roxas blinked a few times, looking at Axel curiously.

"Why don't you just go to your bar or something? You have other friends, right?" Roxas offered, shrugging.

"It's different with you. You're like a shrink… You don't _really_ know me yet, so I can assume you're not going to assume things about me… Or something, I don't know," Axel strained to find the right words, gripping Roxas' wrist tighter.

"Okay, maybe, if I have time… I'm kind of busy… Finding your lover's murderer and all." Roxas shifted, regaining possession of his wrist.

"Well, see you later then, lieutenant," Axel smirked, taking another drag of his cigarette, sitting back down and grabbing his mug of coffee again.

"Uh-huh. Good-bye, Mr. Kasai," Roxas uttered, calmly turning his back to Axel. He had some new info to look into.

Xigbar Jackson… Zexion Camelot… Xemnas Fireworks Inc… Luxord's Bar…

Oh, and he needed to make a trip to the beach.


End file.
